Video transcription

Hi this is Yolanda Vanveen and in this segment we are going to talk about how to Winterize hydrangeas. Now I love my hydrangea and they are great for the shade and they have beautiful colored flowers and they bloom all Summer long and then when it freezes in the Winter they just kind of, all the leaves fall off and they just kind of look dead but you know they are still alive. So they can handle a lot of cold temperatures so in the North West we don't have to bring them in, I just leave them in the ground and my rule of thumb is always cut back your hydrangeas back at least one third the size of the plant in the Fall so even before the first frost I will just trim it back at least one third the size and instead of making it more of a Medusa I just trim it so it is more of a circle, a circular shape and you'll notice those little buds all over it. You never want to cut below any of those bud lines. You want to leave at least some buds on a stem. If you cut down where there is no buds then nothing is going to happen to that stem the next year it is going to die. You always want to make sure there is still some buds where you are cutting back too and then you thin it out to about one third so that it gets more sunlight in the middle of the plant the next year even though it is a shade plant it does need some light and just by doing those few things and trimming it back I have gotten them to survive and it will survive no matter what and then thrive for the next year and then I get lots and lots of blooms and I can enjoy them the next Summer.